Category Archives: Vehicle Sales

A total of 1,350 new vehicles were sold during February, a drop of 2.8% from the January sales of 1,389 and down 30.7% over February 2015, driven by a slowdown in both passenger and commercial vehicle sales. At this point of the year, 2,739 vehicles have been sold so far in 2016, down 25.2% on the comparable period of 2015. This declining growth rate of new vehicle sales suggests that we may see another contraction in new vehicle sale this year, only to a much larger extent than the slight decrease seen in 2015.

Rolling 12 month sales continued to contract after turning negative in December for the first time in 69 months, with the year on year 12 month percentage change -8.9% for February.

Sales of passenger vehicles rose by 11.0% month on month, from 546 in January to 606 in February. On an annual basis, total sales of passenger vehicles fell by 26.2%. Commercial vehicle sales decreased 33.9% year on year to a sales figure of 744 vehicles, which was due to lower sales numbers of light and heavy commercial vehicles, slightly offset by an increase in sales of medium commercial vehicles. On a monthly basis, commercial vehicle sales was 11.7% lower than in January.

Toyota and Volkswagen continue to dominate the passenger vehicle segment with Volkswagen selling 180 (30%) vehicles and Toyota selling 113 (19%) of the 606 passenger vehicles sold. Toyota was however the market leader in light commercial vehicle sales, having the lion’s share at 41% of the market, followed by Nissan at 15% and Ford in third place with 14%. Commercial vehicle sales continue to come in higher than passenger vehicle sales as has been the long term trend.

 The Bottom Line

We have seen exceptionally strong vehicle sales growth through 2014 and 2015, fuelled by a strong consumer base supported by expansionary fiscal policy and real wage growth, but the latest figures show that this trend is losing momentum. Strong vehicle sales over the last two years have elevated the base substantially which has led to lower percentage growth figures, although the number of vehicles sold as a whole is still relatively strong. However, we expect to see a decrease in vehicle sales as purchase of vehicles by Government will be reduced this year. The Ministry of Finance has allocated N$426.8 million to vehicle purchases in the 2016/17 National Budget, this is N$592.9m or 58.1% less than the N$1.019 billion what was spent on vehicles during the previous financial year. Further downside risks to this are rising interest rates which may limit marginal lenders from qualifying for financing as well as banking sector liquidity which may limit the amount of loans available to finance vehicle purchases.

A total of 1,389 new vehicles were sold during January, a drop of 13.5% from the December sales of 1,583 and down 19.1% over January 2015, driven by a slowdown in both passenger and commercial vehicle sales. Rolling 12 month sales continued to contract after turning negative in December for the first time in 69 months, with the year on year 12 month percentage change -5.6% for January.

Sales of passenger vehicles fell by 11.1% month on month, from 614 in December to 546 in January, down from a high of 910 in March 2015. On an annual basis, total sales of passenger vehicles fell by 26.5%. Commercial vehicle sales decreased 13.4% year on year to a sales figure of 843 vehicles, which was due to lower sales numbers of light, medium and heavy commercial vehicles. On a monthly basis, commercial vehicle sales was 13.0% lower than in December.

Toyota and Volkswagen continue to dominate the passenger vehicle segment with Volkswagen selling 152 (28%) vehicles and Toyota selling 141 (26%) of the 546 passenger vehicles sold. Toyota was however the market leader in light commercial vehicle sales, having the lion’s share at 51% of the market, followed by Nissan at 21% and Ford in third place with 10%. Commercial vehicle sales continue to come in higher than passenger vehicle sales as has been the long term trend.

The Bottom Line

We have seen exceptionally strong vehicle sales through 2014 and 2015, fueled by a strong consumer base supported by expansionary fiscal policy and real wage growth, but the latest figures show that this trend is losing momentum. Strong vehicle sales over the last two years have elevated the base substantially which has led to lower percentage growth figures, although the number of vehicles sold as a whole is still relatively strong. We expect to see vehicle sales normalising somewhat at these levels. Downside risks to this are rising interest rates which may limit marginal lenders from qualifying for financing as well as banking sector liquidity which may limit the amount of loans available to finance vehicle purchases.

A total of 1,583 new vehicles were sold in Namibia during December. New vehicle sales decreased by 13.5% year on year and decreased 8.0% month on month. During 2015, a total of 21,246 new vehicles were sold, down 3.2% when compared to 2014. This slight decrease was largely due to an elevated base and strong vehicle sales in 2014.

Passenger vehicle sales rose by 4.4% month on month, from 588 in November to 614 in December, down from a high of 910 in March this year. On a year to date basis, total sales of passenger vehicles during 2015 slowed further by 6.2% to 9,035, while year on year sales fell by 25.4% off a high base. 2014 saw exceptional growth in passenger vehicle sales, setting a high base, which has proven to be unsustainable as the year to date percentage change in vehicle sales has shown.

Commercial vehicle sales decreased by 14.5% month on month as 969 vehicles were sold. On a year on year basis, total commercial vehicle sales for 2015 decreased by 0.9% as the growth rate in commercial vehicle sales declined steadily during the year, turning negative for the first time in 29 months in November. Light commercial vehicle sales decreased by 16.6% month on month and fell 5.3% year on year. Total light commercial vehicles for 2015 fell 1.9% compared to 2014. Medium commercial vehicle sales rose 4.2% month on month and fell 34.2% year on year, largely due to the low number of vehicles sold in this category. Total medium commercial vehicles for 2015 fell 2.5% compared to 2014. Heavy commercial vehicle sales rose by 12.5% month on month and 46.9% year on year. Total heavy commercial vehicles sold during 2015 rose 15.9% to 830 compared to 2014, taking it to a record year. Medium and Heavy commercial vehicle sales figures fluctuate greatly due to the low numbers of these vehicles that are sold on a monthly basis.

Toyota topped the number of vehicles sold per brand for the year at 8,178, a market share of 38.5%. 2,787 or 30.8% of the 9,035 passenger vehicles sold during the year were Toyotas, as well as 5,381 or 49.0% of the 10,989 light commercial vehicles sold in 2015. Volkswagen moved 2,169 passenger vehicles or 24.0% of the total passenger vehicles sold during the year. Volkswagen’s market share was 12.4% of the total. Nissan’s market share this year was 9.6% of the total vehicle sales and 15.7% of total light commercial vehicles sold.

The Bottom Line

We have seen exceptionally strong vehicle sales growth through 2014, fuelled by a strong consumer base supported by expansionary fiscal policy and real wage growth, but the latest figures show that this trend is losing momentum. Strong vehicle sales in 2014 have elevated the base substantially which has led to lower percentage growth figures, although the number of vehicles sold as a whole is still strong. We expect to see vehicle sales normalising somewhat at the levels seen this year. Downside risks to this are rising interest rates which may limit marginal lenders from qualifying for financing as well as banking sector liquidity which may limit the amount of loans available to finance vehicle purchases.